West Germanic languages

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because
it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by
introducing more precise citations. (October 2017) (Learn how and when to remove
this template message)
West Germanic
Ethnicity West Germanic peoples
Geographic
distribution Originally between the Rhine, Alps, Elbe, and North Sea; today
worldwide
Linguistic classification Indo-European
Germanic
West Germanic
Subdivisions
North Sea Germanic � English, Scots, Frisian, Low German
Weser-Rhine Germanic � German (Franconian ), Dutch, Afrikaans
Elbe Germanic � German (Alemannic, Bavarian, Luxembourgish), Hunsrik, Yiddish
ISO 639-5 gmw
Linguasphere 52-AB & 52-AC
Glottolog west2793[1]
The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the
Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct
East Germanic languages).

The four most prevalent West Germanic languages are Afrikaans, English, German, and
Dutch. The family also includes other High and Low German languages including
Yiddish, in addition to other Franconian languages, like Luxembourgish and
Ingvaeonic languages next to English, such as the Frisian languages and Scots.
Additionally, several creoles, patois, and pidgins are based on Dutch and English
as they were languages of colonial empires.

Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 Origins
1.2 Existence of a West Germanic proto-language
1.3 The reconstruction of Proto-West-Germanic
1.4 Dating Early West Germanic
1.5 Middle Ages
2 Family tree
3 Comparison of phonological and morphological features
4 Phonology
5 West Germanic vocabulary
6 Notes
7 References
8 Bibliography
9 External links
History[edit]

The Germanic languages in Europe:

North Germanic languages
Icelandic
Faroese
Norwegian
Swedish
Danish
West Germanic languages
 Scots
English
Frisian
Dutch
Low German
German
Dots indicate areas where multilingualism is common.
Origins[edit]
The West Germanic languages share many lexemes not existing in North Germanic
and/or East Germanic�archaisms as well as common neologisms.

Existence of a West Germanic proto-language[edit]

Most scholars doubt that there was a Proto-West-Germanic proto-language common to
the West Germanic languages and no others, though a few maintain that Proto-West-
Germanic existed.[2] Most agree that after East Germanic broke off (an event
usually dated to the 2nd or 1st century BC), the remaining Germanic languages, the
Northwest Germanic languages, divided into four main dialects:[3] North Germanic,
and the three groups conventionally called "West Germanic", namely

North Sea Germanic (Ingvaeonic, ancestral to Anglo-Frisian and also Old Saxon)
Weser-Rhine Germanic (Istvaeonic, ancestral to Old Frankish, its successors Low
Franconian and several dialects of Old High German)
Elbe Germanic (Irminonic, ancestral to several dialects of Old High German, most
probably including the extinct Langobardic language).
Although there is quite a bit of knowledge about North Sea Germanic or Anglo-
Frisian (due to characteristic features of its daughter languages, Anglo-Saxon/Old
English and Old Frisian), linguists know almost nothing about "Weser-Rhine
Germanic" and "Elbe Germanic". In fact, these two terms were coined in the 1940s to
refer to groups of archaeological findings rather than linguistic features. Only
later were these terms applied to hypothetical dialectal differences within both
regions. Even today, the very small number of Migration Period runic inscriptions
from this area�many of them illegible, unclear or consisting only of one word,
often a name�is insufficient to identify linguistic features specific to the two
supposed dialect groups.

Evidence that East Germanic split off before the split between North and West
Germanic comes from a number of linguistic innovations common to North and West
Germanic,[4] including:

The lowering of Proto-Germanic e (/??/, also written ?) to a.[5]

The development of umlaut.
The rhotacism of /z/ to /r/.
The development of the demonstrative pronoun ancestral to English this.
Under this view, the properties that the West Germanic languages have in common
separate from the North Germanic languages are not necessarily inherited from a
"Proto-West-Germanic" language, but may have spread by language contact among the
Germanic languages spoken in central Europe, not reaching those spoken in
Scandinavia or reaching them much later. Rhotacism, for example, was largely
complete in West Germanic at a time when North Germanic runic inscriptions still
clearly distinguished the two phonemes. There is also evidence that the lowering of
e to a occurred first in West Germanic and spread to North Germanic later, since
word-final e was lowered before it was shortened in West Germanic, whereas in North
Germanic the shortening occurred first, resulting in e that later merged with i.
However, there are also a number of common archaisms in West Germanic shared by
neither Old Norse nor Gothic. Some authors who support the concept of a West
Germanic proto-language claim that not only shared innovations can require the
existence of a linguistic clade but that there can be also archaisms that cannot be
explained simply as retentions later lost in the North and/or East because this
assumption can produce contradictions with attested features of these other
branches.

The debate on the existence of a Proto-West-Germanic clade was recently summarized:

That North Germanic is .. a unitary subgroup [of Proto-Germanic] is completely

obvious, as all of its dialects shared a long series of innovations, some of them
very striking. That the same is true of West Germanic has been denied, but I will
argue in vol. ii that all the West Germanic languages share several highly unusual
innovations that virtually force us to posit a West Germanic clade. On the other
hand, the internal subgrouping of both North Germanic and West Germanic is very
messy, and it seems clear that each of those subfamilies diversified into a network
of dialects that remained in contact for a considerable period of time (in some
cases right up to the present).[6]

The reconstruction of Proto-West-Germanic[edit]

Several scholars have published reconstructions of Proto-West-Germanic
morphological paradigms[7] and many authors have reconstructed individual Proto-
West-Germanic morphological forms or lexemes. The first comprehensive
reconstruction of the Proto-West-Germanic language was published in 2013 by Wolfram
Euler.[8]

Dating Early West Germanic[edit]

If indeed Proto-West-Germanic existed, it must have been between the 3rd and 7th
centuries. Until the 3rd century AD, the language of runic inscriptions found in
Scandinavia and in Northern Germany were so similar that Proto-North-Germanic and
the Western dialects in the south were still part of one language ("Proto-
Northwest-Germanic"). After that, the split into West and North Germanic occurred.

It has been argued that, judging by their nearly identical syntax, the West
Germanic dialects were closely enough related to have been mutually intelligible up
to the 7th century.[9] Over the course of this period, the dialects diverged
successively. The High German consonant shift that occurred during the 7th century
AD in what is now southern Germany and Switzerland can be considered the end of the
linguistic unity among the West Germanic dialects, although its effects on their
own should not be overestimated. Bordering dialects very probably continued to be
mutually intelligible even beyond the boundaries of the consonant shift. In fact,
many dialects of Limburgish and Ripuarian are still mutually intelligible today.

Middle Ages[edit]
During the Early Middle Ages, the West Germanic languages were separated by the
insular development of Old and Middle English on one hand, and by the High German
consonant shift on the continent on the other.

The High German consonant shift distinguished the High German languages from the
other West Germanic languages. By early modern times, the span had extended into
considerable differences, ranging from Highest Alemannic in the South (the Walliser
dialect being the southernmost surviving German dialect) to Northern Low Saxon in
the North. Although both extremes are considered German, they are not mutually
intelligible. The southernmost varieties have completed the second sound shift,
whereas the northern dialects remained unaffected by the consonant shift.

Of modern German varieties, Low German is the one that most resembles modern
English. The district of Angeln (or Anglia), from which the name English derives,
is in the extreme northern part of Germany between the Danish border and the Baltic
coast. The area of the Saxons (parts of today's Schleswig-Holstein and Lower
Saxony) lay south of Anglia. The Anglo-Saxons, two Germanic tribes, were a
combination of a number of peoples from northern Germany and the Jutland Peninsula.

Family tree[edit]
Grouping of the main Germanic languages, including historical dialects, according
to Friedrich Maurer.
Main article: List of West Germanic languages
Note that divisions between subfamilies of Germanic are rarely precisely defined;
most form dialect continua, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and
more separated ones not.

North Sea Germanic / Ingvaeonic languages

Anglo-Frisian languages
English Languages/Anglic
English
Scots
Yola (extinct)
Fingalian (extinct)
Frisian languages
West Frisian
East Frisian
North Frisian
Low German / Low Saxon
Northern Low Saxon
Schleswig dialects
Holstein dialects
Westphalian
Eastphalia dialects
Brandenburg dialects ("M�rkisch")
Pommeranian (moribund)
Low Prussian (moribund)
Dutch Low Saxon
Rhine Germanic / Istvaeonic languages / Netherlandic
Dutch
West Flemish
East Flemish
Zeelandic
Hollandic
Brabantine
East Dutch (Zuid-Gelders/Clevian)
Limburgian
Afrikaans
Elbe Germanic / Irminonic languages / High German
German
Alemannic, including Swiss German and Alsatian
Swabian
Austro-Bavarian
East Franconian
South Franconian
Rhine Franconian, including the dialects of Hessen
Ripuarian
Thuringian
Upper Saxon German
Luxembourgish (in lingusitic terms a Ripuarian dialect)
Silesian (moribund)
Lombardic aka Langobardic (extinct, unless Cimbrian and Mocheno are in fact
Langobardic remnants.)
High Prussian (moribund)
Yiddish (a language based on Eastern-Central dialects of late Middle High
German/Early New High German)
Comparison of phonological and morphological features[edit]
The following table shows a list of various linguistic features, and their extent
among the West Germanic languages. Some may only appear in the older languages but
are no longer apparent in the modern languages.

Old English Old Frisian Old Saxon Old Dutch Old Central
German Old Upper
German
Palatalisation of velars Yes Yes No No No No
Unrounding of front rounded vowels Yes Yes No No No No
Loss of intervocalic *-h- Yes Yes Developing Yes Developing No
Class II weak verb ending *-(o)ja- Yes Yes Sometimes No No No
Merging of plural forms of verbs Yes Yes Yes No No No
Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law Yes Yes Yes Rare No No
Loss of the reflexive pronoun Yes Yes Yes Most dialects No No
Loss of final *-z in single-syllable words Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Reduction of weak class III to four relics Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Monophthongization of *ai, *au Yes Yes Yes Usually Partial
Partial
Final-obstruent devoicing No No No Yes Developing No
Diphthongization of *e, *o No No Rare Yes Yes Yes
Loss of initial *h- before consonant No No No Yes Yes Developing
Loss of initial *w- before consonant No No No No Yes Yes
High German consonant shift No No No No Partial Yes
Phonology[edit]
The original vowel system of West Germanic was similar to that of Proto-Germanic;
note however the lowering of the two long front vowels.

Monophthong phonemes of West Germanic

Front Central Back
unrounded unrounded rounded
short long short long short long
Close i i? u u?
Mid e e? o o?
Open a: a a?
The consonant system was also essentially the same as that of Proto-Germanic. Note,
however, the particular changes described above, as well as West Germanic
gemination.

West Germanic vocabulary[edit]

The following table compares a number of Frisian, English, Dutch and German words
with common West Germanic (or older) origin. The grammatical gender of each term is
noted as masculine (m.), feminine (f.), or neuter (n.) where relevant.

West Frisian English Dutch German Old English Old High German Proto-
West-Germanic[10] Proto-Germanic
kaam comb kam Kamm m. camb m. camb m. k�b� [see inscription of
Erfurt-Frienstedt], *kamb� m. *kambaz m.
dei day dag Tag m. dag tac m. *dag� m. *dagaz m.
rein rain regen Regen m. regn regan m. *regn� m. *regnaz m.
wei way weg Weg m. weg weg m. *weg� m. *wegaz m.
neil nail nagel Nagel m. nagel nagal m. *nagl� m. *naglaz m.
tsiis cheese kaas K�se m. cese, ciese chasi, kasi m. *kasi m.
*kasijaz m. (late Proto-Germanic, from Latin caseus)
tsjerke church
kirk (Scotland) kerk Kirche f. cirice chirihha, *kirihha f. *kirika f.
sibbe sibling[note 1] sibbe Sippe f. sibb f. "kinship, peace" sibba f.,
Old Saxon: sibbia sibbju, sibbja f. *sibjo f. "relationship, kinship, friendship"
kaai f. key sleutel Schl�ssel m. c?g(e), c?ga f. "key, solution,
experiment" sluzzil m. *slutil� m., *keg� f. *slutilaz m. "key"; *kegaz, *keguz
f. "stake, post, pole"
ha west have been ben geweest bin gewesen
twa skiep two sheep twee schapen zwei Schafe n. zwei scaf n.
*twai(?) skepo n.
hawwe have hebben haben habban, hafian haben *habbjan� *habjan�
�s us ons uns us uns *uns *uns
brea bread brood Brot n. bread n. "fragment, bit, morsel, crumb" also "bread"
brot n. *braud� m. *braud� n. "cooked food, leavened bread"
hier hair haar Haar n. her, h?r har n. *h?r� n. *her� n.
ear ear oor Ohr n. eare n. < pre-English *?ora ora n. *aura <
*auza n. *auzo, *auson
doar door deur T�r f. duru turi f. *duru *durz
grien green groen gr�n grene gruoni *groni *groniz
swiet sweet zoet s�� swete s(w)uozi (< *swoti) *swotu *swotuz
troch through door durch ?urh duruh *?urhw
wiet wet nat nass w?t naz (< *nat) *w?t� / *nat� *wetaz / *nataz
each eye oog Auge n. eage n. < pre-English *?oga ouga n. *auga n.
*augo n.
dream dream droom Traum m. dream m. "joy, pleasure, ecstasy, music, song" troum
m. *draum� m. *draumaz (< *draugmaz) m.
stien stone steen Stein m. stan m. stein m. *stainaz m.
Other words, with a variety of origins:

West Frisian English Dutch German Old English Old High German Proto-
West-Germanic[10] Proto-Germanic
tegearre together samen
tezamen zusammen
hynder horse paard
ros (dated) Pferd n. / Ross n. hors n. eoh m. (h)ros n. / pfarifrit n. /
ehu- (in compositions) *hruss� n. / *ehu m. *hruss� n., *ehwaz m.
Note that some of the shown similarities of Frisian and English vis-a-vis Dutch and
German are secondary and not due to a closer relationship between them. For
example, the plural of the word for "sheep" was originally unchanged in all four
languages and still is in some Dutch dialects and a great deal of German dialects.
Many other similarities, however, are indeed old inheritances.

Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Original meaning "relative" has become "brother or sister" in English.
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Hammarstr�m, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017).
"West Germanic". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science
of Human History.
Jump up ^ Robinson (1992): p. 17-18
Jump up ^ Kuhn, Hans (1955�56). "Zur Gliederung der germanischen Sprachen".
Zeitschrift f�r deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur. 86: 1�47.
Jump up ^ Robinson, Orrin W. (1992). Old English and Its Closest Relatives.
Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2221-8.
Jump up ^ But see Cercignani, Fausto, Indo-European e in Germanic, in �Zeitschrift
f�r vergleichende Sprachforschung�, 86/1, 1972, pp. 104�110.
Jump up ^ Ringe, Don. 2006: A Linguistic History of English. Volume I. From Proto-
Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, Oxford University Press, p. 213-214.
Jump up ^ H. F. Nielsen (1981, 2001), G. Klingenschmitt (2002) and K.-H. Mottausch
(1998, 2011)
Jump up ^ Wolfram Euler: Das Westgermanische � von der Herausbildung im 3. bis zur
Aufgliederung im 7. Jahrhundert � Analyse und Rekonstruktion (West Germanic: From
its Emergence in the 3rd Century to its Split in the 7th Century: Analyses and
Reconstruction). 244 p., in German with English summary, London/Berlin 2013, ISBN
978-3-9812110-7-8.
Jump up ^ Graeme Davis (2006:154) notes "the languages of the Germanic group in the
Old period are much closer than has previously been noted. Indeed it would not be
inappropriate to regard them as dialects of one language. They are undoubtedly far
closer one to another than are the various dialects of modern Chinese, for example.
A reasonable modern analogy might be Arabic, where considerable dialectical
diversity exists but within the concept of a single Arabic language." In: Davis,
Graeme (2006). Comparative Syntax of Old English and Old Icelandic: Linguistic,
Literary and Historical Implications. Bern: Peter Lang. ISBN 3-03910-270-2.
^ Jump up to: a b sources: Ringe, Don / Taylor, Ann (2014) and Euler, Wolfram
(2013), passim.
Bibliography[edit]
Adamus, Marian (1962). On the mutual relations between Nordic and other Germanic
dialects. Germanica Wratislavensia 7. 115�158.
Bammesberger, Alfred (Ed.) (1991), Old English Runes and their Continental
Background. Heidelberg: Winter.
Bammesberger, Alfred (1996). The Preterite of Germanic Strong Verbs in Classes Fore
and Five, in "North-Western European Language Evolution" 27, 33�43.
Bremmer, Rolf H., Jr. (2009). An Introduction to Old Frisian. History, Grammar,
Reader, Glossary. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: Benjamins Publishing Company.
Euler, Wolfram (2002/03). "Vom Westgermanischen zum Althochdeutschen" (From West
Germanic to Old High German), Sprachaufgliederung im Dialektkontinuum, in
Klagenfurter Beitr�ge zur Sprachwissenschaft, Vol. 28/29, 69�90.
Euler, Wolfram (2013) Das Westgermanische � von der Herausbildung im 3. bis zur
Aufgliederung im 7. Jahrhundert � Analyse und Rekonstruktion (West Germanic: from
its Emergence in the 3rd up until its Dissolution in the 7th Century CE: Analyses
and Reconstruction). 244 p., in German with English summary, Verlag Inspiration Un
Limited, London/Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-9812110-7-8.
H�rke, Heinrich (2011). Anglo-Saxon Immigration and Ethnogenesis, in: �Medieval
Archaeology� No. 55, 2011, pp. 1�28.
Hilsberg, Susan (2009). Place-Names and Settlement History. Aspects of Selected
Topographical Elements on the Continent and in England, Magister Theses,
Universit�t Leipzig.
Klein, Thomas (2004). "Im Vorfeld des Althochdeutschen und Alts�chsischen" (Prior
to Old High German and Old Saxon), in Entstehung des Deutschen. Heidelberg,
241�270.
Kortlandt, Frederik (2008). Anglo-Frisian, in �North-Western European Language
Evolution� 54/55, 265 � 278.
Looijenga, Jantina Helena (1997). Runes around the North Sea and on the Continent
AD 150�700; Text & Contents. Groningen: SSG Uitgeverij.
Friedrich Maurer (1942), Nordgermanen und Alemannen: Studien zur germanischen und
fr�hdeutschen Sprachgeschichte, Stammes- und Volkskunde, Strassburg: H�neburg.
Mees, Bernard (2002). The Bergakker inscription and the beginnings of Dutch, in
�Amsterdamer Beitr�ge zur �lteren Germanistik� 56, 23�26.
Mottausch, Karl-Heinz (1998). Die reduplizierenden Verben im Nord- und
Westgermanischen: Versuch eines Raum-Zeit-Modells, in "North-Western European
Language Evolution" 33, 43�91.
Nielsen, Hans F. (1981). Old English and the Continental Germanic languages. A
Survey of Morphological and Phonological Interrelations. Innsbruck: Institut f�r
Sprachwissenschaft. (2nd edition 1985)
Nielsen, Hans Frede. (2000). Ingw�onisch. In Heinrich Beck et al. (eds.),
Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (2. Auflage), Band 15, 432�439. Berlin:
De Gruyter.
Page, Raymond I. (1999). An Introduction to English Runes, 2. edition. Woodbridge:
Bogdell Press.
Page, Raymond I. (2001). Frisian Runic Inscriptions, in Horst Munske et al.,
"Handbuch des Friesischen". T�bingen, 523�530.
Ringe, Donald R. (2012). Cladistic principles and linguistic reality: the case of
West Germanic. In Philomen Probert and Andreas Willi (eds.), Laws and Rules on
Indo-European, 33�42. Oxford.
Ringe, Donald R. and Taylor, Ann (2014). The Development of Old English � A
Linguistic History of English, vol. II, 632p. ISBN 978-0199207848. Oxford.
Robinson, Orrin W. (1992). Old English and Its Closest Relatives. A Survey of the
Earliest Germanic Languages. Stanford University Press.
Seebold, Elmar (1998). "Die Sprache(n) der Germanen in der Zeit der
V�lkerwanderung" (The Language(s) of the Germanic Peoples during the Migration
Period), in E. Koller & H. Laitenberger, Suevos � Schwaben. Das K�nigreich der
Sueben auf der Iberischen Halbinsel (411�585). T�bingen, 11�20.
Seebold, Elmar (2006). "Westgermanische Sprachen" (West Germanic Languages), in
Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde 33, 530�536.
Stifter, David (2009). "The Proto-Germanic shift *a > o and early Germanic
linguistic contacts", in Historische Sprachforschung 122, 268�283.
Stiles, Patrick V. (1995). Remarks on the �Anglo-Frisian� thesis, in �Friesische
Studien I�. Odense, 177�220.
Stiles, Patrick V. (2004). Place-adverbs and the development of Proto-Germanic long
*e1 in early West Germanic. In Irma Hyv�rinen et al. (Hg.), Etymologie,
Entlehnungen und Entwicklungen. M�moires de la Soc. N�ophil. de Helsinki 63.
Helsinki. 385�396.
Stiles, Patrick V. (2013). The Pan-West Germanic Isoglosses and the
Subrelationships of West Germanic to Other Branches. In Unity and Diversity in West
Germanic, I. Special issue of NOWELE 66:1 (2013), Nielsen, Hans Frede and Patrick
V. Stiles (eds.), 5 ff.
Voyles, Joseph B. (1992). Early Germanic Grammar: pre-, proto-, and post-Germanic
Language. San Diego: Academic Press
External links[edit]
Find more about
West Germanic languages
at Wikipedia's sister projects
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Wikimedia Commons
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Travel guide from Wikivoyage
Learning resources from Wikiversity
Data from Wikidata
Germanic languages at Curlie (based on DMOZ)
[show] v t e
Germanic languages and dialects
[show] v t e
Philology of Germanic languages
[show] v t e
History of English
Authority control
GND: 4447499-4 BNF: cb11938810x (data)
Categories: Germanic languagesWest Germanic languagesWestern EuropeWest Germanic
peoples
Navigation menu
Not logged inTalkContributionsCreate accountLog inArticleTalkReadEditView
historySearch

Search Wikipedia
Go
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
In other projects
Wikimedia Commons
Languages
Afrikaans
????
Anglisc
???????
Aragon�s
Asturianu
?????
B�n-l�m-g�
??????????
?????????? (???????????)?
???????
?????????
Boarisch
Catala
�e�tina
Deutsch
Dolnoserbski
Eesti
????????
Espanol
Esperanto
Euskara
?????
Foroyskt
Fran�ais
Frysk
Galego
???
???????
Hornjoserbsce
Hrvatski
Ido
Bahasa Indonesia
�slenska
Italiano
Latina
Latvie�u
Lietuviu
Magyar
??????????
Nederlands
Nedersaksies
???
Nordfriisk
Norsk
Norsk nynorsk
??????
Papiamentu
Patois
Plattd��tsch
Polski
Portugues
Rom�n�
???????
Scots
Seeltersk
Shqip
Sloven�ina
Suomi
T�rk�e
??????????
????
Ti?ng Vi?t
West-Vlams
Yorub�
??
??
Edit links
This page was last edited on 22 January 2018, at 22:01.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;
additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and
Privacy Policy. Wikipedia� is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersContact WikipediaDevelopersCookie
statementMobile viewEnable previews
Wikimedia Foundation Powered by MediaWiki